CHINA: Ireland's economic success has lessons for China, according to Premier Wen Jiabao, who also told Miriam Donohoe in a rare interview in Beijing of his affection for George Bernard Shaw
Sitting in a throne-like chair in the austere surroundings of the leader's walled compound in Zhongnanhai, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao displayed a remarkable familiarity with Ireland, a country he is to visit for the first time next month.
Saying all he has to go on is what he has read in books and what he has been told, the leader of 1.3 billion people nonetheless revealed he is well versed on Ireland's economic success - a success he is anxious for China to emulate.
When people talk of Ireland, Premier Wen told The Irish Times in a rare interview with a Western newspaper in Beijing yesterday, they think of Riverdance and the Emerald Isle. But they are also aware of the "extraordinary fast growth of Ireland".
He said he thought there were another two descriptions more appropriate for Ireland.
"They are two metaphors. One comparing Ireland to an Island of (Saints and) Scholars, and the other to an Island of Science and Technology."
Aged 62, Premier Wen is a young man compared to previous Chinese leaders. He took over from Zhu Rongji a year ago.
During our interview - given to mark his 10-day European tour to Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Britain from May 2nd to 12th - he displayed a love of literature and showed he was well read in Irish literature.
"China had a very cordial friend back in Ireland by the name of Bernard Shaw. He once said you and I are friends. If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we exchange the apples, each of us still has one apple," he said.
"But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, then each of us has two ideas. It is indeed a truth that an open and learning nation will make progress and develop itself."
Premier Wen said it was remarkable that in a short span of 20 years Ireland has turned itself from an agricultural and industry centred country into a fast, high-tech one. He wanted his visit to Ireland on May 11th and 12th - his first visit to Europe as China's prime minister - to give him a better understanding of the Irish experience and development.
Small-framed and agile, the premier said Ireland, as chair of the European Union, had played an important role in furthering friendly ties and co-operation between China and the EU. He said he hoped his visit to Ireland would strengthen areas of co-operation between the two countries especially in the high-tech area, and he spoke of forging closer links with an enlarged Europe.
The emphasis that Ireland has placed on education and science and technology has proven an important element in recent economic success, he said.
"In Ireland, which is a very small country in size, you have cultivated so many talents and Nobel prize laureates. This shows the great importance you have attached to education. Your software has taken a sizeable portion of the international market and this has shown the importance you have attached to the high-tech sector."
Premier Wen spoke enthusiastically of the 60,000 Chinese people in Ireland, 20,000 of whom are students and others who are working here, some who are now Irish citizens.
"I hope that they will abide by the rules and regulations of Ireland and join hands with Irish people in developing Ireland."
On the thorny issue of Taiwan independence, Premier Wen said there would be no compromise following the recent re-election of President Chen, and ruled out China ever looking to what the Republic and Britain have achieved in Northern Ireland as a possible solution to solving the Taiwan question.
"Taiwan is a part of Chinese territory. The Taiwan question is actually a result of civil war in the past history of China. The Chinese government follows the one-China principle. That is that both the mainland and Taiwan belongs to the same one China, and sovereignty and territorial integrity of China brooks no divisions. They are sacred."
He added: "We will do our utmost to achieve the peaceful reunification of our motherland, but at the same time we will by no means allow the separation of Taiwan from the rest of the motherland. No matter we perceive this issue from a historical angle or a practical angle, this Taiwan question is totally of a different nature from the question of Northern Ireland."
In relation to Hong Kong, the premier sought to allay fears that China is blocking democracy, and he promised to allow ultimately the direct election of the territory's chief executive and legislature. His comments came after China earlier this week dashed hopes of Hong Kong electing its chief executive by universal suffrage in 2007 and its legislature in 2008.
In an earlier briefing yesterday with Reuters news agency, he said in relation to Hong Kong that China's objective stipulated in the Basic Law had not changed, to ultimately realise election by universal suffrage of the chief executive and the Legislative Council of the Special Administrative Region.
"The objective stipulated in the Basic Law has not changed - to ultimately realise election by universal suffrage of the chief executive and the Legislative Council of the Special Administrative Region."
On the North Korea nuclear issue, he said the United States and North Korea had both expressed a wish to have a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. Both countries have expressed their respective willingness to continue with the six-party talks and facilitate a solution to the issue, he said.
On the economy, which grew over 9 per cent in the first three months of the year, Premier Wen said China was committed to forceful measures to cool its dangerously fast growth. He outlined the weaknesses underlying the economy; problems which he said would prevent all but the most prudent steps in reforming the tightly-held currency.
"We need to take effective and very forceful measures to resolve those problems as soon as possible," he said, adding: "If we change the system rashly, it will certainly bring unpredictable problems to the domestic economy, and at the same time could affect the financial stability of the region and even the world."
The premier is developing a reputation for being a "man of the people" and a caring leader, who is increasingly concerned with the growing gap between rich and poor. He told The Irish Times the biggest challenge facing China is achieving sustainable development and helping its entire people attain a good quality of life.
He said his challenge as prime minister was that the poor improve their livelihood.
But he added he doesn't see the dramatic economic advancement in China being matched yet by the same pace of political reform. China introduced direct elections of village committees four years ago.
"China is such a huge country with a huge population and extremely uneven development from region to region . . . at the present stage we can only apply direct elections at village level.
"The necessary conditions are not available for direct elections at higher levels. The direct elections in villages have greatly tested the villages. If they can successfully run their villages they will certainly improve their own capabilities and this shows exactly how China's democracy will develop.
"When we talk about this topic of democracy I think first and foremost we should talk about the right to subsistence and development of 1.3 billion people. I recall that once George Washington said true individual freedom does simply not exist in the absence of economic security and independence. The poor do not have freedom."
He said China is such a big country with 1.3 billion people it is no easy task to resolve the issue of providing every person with a basic livelihood.
"In the 20 years since China's reform and opening up we have successfully helped 250 million people out of poverty." The premier said China had to constantly improve the socialist and legal systems, and enforce the laws and regulations, so that "each and every leader in China must be aware that powers are matched with responsibility.
"And whenever you have power you should have responsibilities, and whenever you have responsibilities you must be subject to inspection and supervision and whoever breached the law will be held accountable," he said.
"I hope our friends in Ireland will be able to appreciate the progress that China has made in the development of democratic systems."
Chinese leaders rarely give interviews to Western newspapers and his briefings yesterday in the historic Zhongnanhai compound just a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square is perhaps a small but significant sign of change at the top in what was until recent years a very closed regime. Unlike previous leaders he showed himself to be open and personable.
But he is all too aware of the burden that comes with heading a country with 1.3 billion people.
"I think any Chinese premier is shouldered with the great responsibilities for the state, for the society and people."
The more he understands the country and the more love he has for his people, the more responsibilities he says he feels on his shoulders.